There are a lot of common "beliefs" about adoption, and you may have heard some of them. Can you tell what's fact from what's fiction?

"Adoptive parents aren't real parents."
This is false. In every way, adoptive parents are real parents. Legally, financially, emotionally...they are really, truly a child's parents as soon as they adopt a child and decide to love and care for her or him. Family is family, even if the family members don't share the same genes.

"Parents love adopted kids as if they were their own children."
This is true! Adoptive parents will tell you that it doesn't matter whose body their children come from. They love them, period.

"Adopted kids are unwanted kids."
This is false. Birth parents often have many complicated reasons for choosing to give a child up for adoption, but adoptive parents decide to adopt because they have a powerful wish to. To adopt a child is to choose that child, and to want that child. Adopted kids are every bit as wanted as other kids.

"Adopted children should never know anything about their birth parents."
This is false. Even in closed adoptions, kids can sometimes learn information about their birth parents when they are old enough to seek it out. Often, they can send letters and photos to their birth parents, who can choose to read them or not.

"Adopted kids get into more trouble, and are less well-adjusted than other kids."
This is false. There are a lot of reasons why one child may get into more "trouble" and have "problems" than another, but being adopted isn't necessarily one of them.

"The birth mothers of adopted kids are all teenagers or drug-users."
This is false. Actually, the majority of moms who give up their children for adoption are healthy women in their twenties.

"Adoption is forever."
This is true. In almost all cases, adoption is not a temporary situation, but a permanent one. Once you're part of a family, you're there for good!